The demand for ad-hoc and real-time data analyses by many users simultaneously is increasing in the same way that the data quantities to be processed are increasing. To keep pace with the competition in the current economic climate, it is crucial to have the latest information about processes within an organization (e.g. a company) and/or in the market to be able to make the right decisions promptly.
Data can be hierarchical where one superordinate data item may depend on one or many subordinate data items and vice versa. Operations can be performed on a data hierarchy to glean one or more desired pieces of information about the hierarchical data.